Davao Oriental Aims to Become Leading Palm Oil Producer in Mindanao

Davao Oriental targets to become one of the leading suppliers of palm oil in the island of Mindanao with the establishment of its palm oil mill and plantation in the municipality of Cateel, according to the province’s Sunstar Newpaper.  Out of the 45,000 hectares ancestral domain of the Mandayas in Cateel, a total of 5,000 hectares will be alloted for the development of the palm oil industry in the province.  

Funding for the project would come from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), which had agreed to loan 500 million pesos (US$9.62 million) for the construction of the mills and 1.1 billion pesos (US$21.1 million) for planting and maintaining the palms.   Ednar Dayanghirang, chief of staff of the provincial governor Nelson Dayanghirang, said DBP was happy to provide the loan due to it having previously provided funding for three other successful palm oil programmes in Mindanao.  

This project woul be carried out in collaboration between the provincial government of Davao Oriental, vice president of Davao Oriental State College Roy Ponce, and the unnamed Chinese-Malaysian palm oil expert.  Dayanghirang said two types of palm oil mills would be established in Cateel, including one crude oil mill, funded by the DBP loan, and one refinery mill for which additional budget was still pending. He added that Mindanao currently imported approximately 80% of its palm oil consumption.